... similar arguments about the sources of this culture’s strength, the causes of its current weakness, and how it can be strengthened. The general thrust of these books is this: a strong liberal democracy rests on three cultural foundations: the strength of social bonds, the level of deliberative civil...

... liberal democracy is in peril. What is more, by recognizing and even celebrating the soft power gains of autocratic regimes, the polls give exposure and airtime to tyrants and autocracies, thereby legitimating them both domestically and overseas. The polls therefore demonstrate, inadvertently, that soft...

... of economic globalization, liberal democracy, and social cohesion while avoiding some of the tensions implied in the Quandary or reaching Trilemma conditions. For an even larger group of countries, the evidence suggests that growing economic globalization can coexist with lower societal stressor levels...